The Study Of Son And Lovers From The Perspective Of Evolutionary Psychology

David Herbert Lawrence is one of the most important novelists in the twentieth century.His works are famous for describing sexual relations.Sons and Lovers is an autobiographical novel written by Lawrence.It reflects complex psychological connotations in the description of family and marriage,which has attracted wide attention of researchers.However,most of them discuss the problems of Oedipus complex and separation of spirit and flesh from the perspective of psychoanalysis criticism.From the perspective of evolutionary psychology,this paper explores the universal psychological mechanism of human beings in the evolutionary sense contained in Sons and Lovers,and reinterprets the sexual and family relations described in the novel.The paper includes three parts: introduction,body and conclusion.The body is divided into four chapters.The introduction first introduces the general situation of Lawrence's life and creation,reviews the research status at home and abroad,and points out the areas that need further study.Secondly,a brief overview of the research methods,purposes and significance of the paper is given.The first chapter is "Evolutionary Psychology and Its Feasibility in Literary Studies".Evolutionary psychology is a psychological theory which rose in the 1980 s,and its application to literary research is still in the exploratory stage.This chapter gives a brief overview of the theory and research scope of evolutionary psychology,and expounds the relevant critical practice and theory,and explores the feasibility of applying evolutionary psychology to literary research.The second chapter is "Lawrence and Evolutionism".Researchers have different opinions on whether Lawrence's creation is influenced by the theory of evolution.This chapter combines the spread of evolutionismin Britain,differentiates the relationship between Lawrence and evolutionism,and points out that Lawrence adopts a critical inheritance attitude towards evolutionism.Although he is not a conscious practitioner of evolutionism,he subconsciously identifies with evolutionism and absorbs and transforms evolutionism.In Lawrence's novels,the change and development of characters and the moral outlook of natural instinct reflect the tendency of evolutionism.Chapter three is "The Marriage Relations and Matrimonial Choice Strategies in Sons and Lovers".Spouse selection is an important behavior of human beings and also an important theme in literary works.Evolutionary psychology provides a new perspective for understanding the relationship between marriage and love in literature.This chapter uses the theory of evolutionary psychology to explore the trajectory of spouse selection of the main characters in the novel,reveals the relationship between the marriage and the strategy of spouse selection in the novel,and explores the real reasons for the failure or continuation of the relationship between the sexes in the process of marriage and love.Chapter Four is "Human Nature and Evolution in Sons and Lovers".Through the description of Paul's emotional experience and family relationship,Sons and Lovers reveals the imbalance of human soul and flesh,the conflict between sensibility and rationality in British industrial society.From the viewpoint of human nature of evolutionary psychology,the imbalance of human nature described in the novel is the crisis of human nature's adaptation to the environment under the oppression of modern industrial society.Lawrence complained about the oppression of human nature by industrial civilization on the one hand,and also described the adaptable changes of people to the new environment of industrial society on the other.The conclusion summarizes the above contents and reiterates the theoretical and practical significance of studying Sons and Lovers from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.